Chapter 2: Day 1 of Desert Survival  (2): In The Desert, She Was…

There was a blinking “Info” icon in her field of vision. Under the blinding sunlight, the flashing effect was barely noticeable. If she hadn’t looked carefully, she wouldn’t have seen it at all—almost as if it didn’t want to be noticed.

Yu Miaomiao tapped on “Info.”

【System Notification: Calculating Newbie Mission (1) Rewards】

【Luck Trait Activated Successfully – You have received: Mineral Water ×10, Wood ×16, Screws ×12, Scrap Metal ×2, Basic Nutrient Solution Fragments ×2, Basic Duplication Cards ×2, Spicy Chicken Wings ×4, Hamburgers ×2.】

Seeing eight new items suddenly appear in her backpack, Yu Miaomiao went full-on “reckless mode” and finished the half bottle of water she had earlier in one go.

Who said she was fated to lack water? Ten bottles—5,000 mL total—made her the “Water Queen” in a place like this.

Looking at the newly added food in her backpack, she decided to save it for the evening since she wasn’t hungry yet. Fortunately, she’d eaten lunch just before coming here, so she could skip a meal for now.

At this moment, she remembered she had a crossbody bag with her. She’d been so focused on the holographic interface that she had completely forgotten about it.

Her clothes were still the same as before, so of course the bag was still there. Aside from a mobile phone with no signal, Yu Miaomiao dumped out the contents with one hand to take inventory.

【1 lipstick, 1 small mirror, 1 Swiss army knife, 1 foundation sample, 1 pack of tissues, 1 box of dental floss, 1 hand cream】

Aside from the Swiss army knife, none of this seemed useful for survival.

In order to prevent losing such an important item, Yu Miaomiao stored the knife in her system backpack.

When doing so, her hand happened to touch the knife, and a window popped up showing the item’s attributes.

【Name: Swiss Army Knife (Yu Miaomiao) (99/100)

Level: 3

Function: Delicate blade with sharp edges, 14 functions

Attribute: 75 attack power】

She then tried clicking on the other items one by one. Aside from all items being Level 1, none had any special attributes.

Until her finger moved to the nutrient solution fragment.

【Name: Basic Nutrient Solution Fragment (1/1)

Level: 3

Description: Three fragments can be combined to form a Basic Nutrient Solution

Attributes: —】

The attribute section was blank, so it seemed the fragments themselves had no attributes. She guessed only after combining them would she know what the nutrient solution could do.

Next was the duplication card. It looked like a card with strange vine-like patterns stored in a slot. On the card’s face was a small logo and the word “Duplicate” printed.

Seeing the logo, she recalled it was the game company’s logo from the signup link.

What kind of game was this? It felt so real it didn’t seem like a game at all.

【Name: Basic Duplication Card (1/1)

Level: 4

Description: Using this card, you can duplicate any item into your warehouse. Duplication may fail. The higher the item’s value, the lower the success rate, and vice versa.

Attributes: —】

Value? How was she supposed to know the value? Could it be the item’s resale value later on?

After storing the card in her backpack, Yu Miaomiao reopened the world chat to see what others were saying.

At that moment, she saw the person who previously said they had no water speaking again.

『WhoAmI: Does anyone have cooking tools? I’ll trade raw meat for cooked food.』

Raw meat?

Where would raw meat come from? Could it be that the system’s gifted items included raw meat?

Or were there wild animals nearby that people hunted for raw meat?

Obviously, many people shared the same confusion. Most said they only got steamed buns, and the best some got were stuffed buns.

Looks like she was really lucky to get chicken wings and hamburgers.

While the world chat discussion was ongoing, one message from another player caused the chat to pause for at least five minutes.

Yu Miaomiao, still debating whether to build a house, noticed the last message.

『BackhandSix: That’s human meat. The raw meat that ‘WhoAmI’ has is human meat. Everyone, do not add him as a friend—he shows coordinates.』

Human meat?

Why would ‘WhoAmI‘ have human meat?

A terrible thought flashed through her mind—could this ‘WhoAmI’ have killed someone? Or even worse…

Yu Miaomiao didn’t dare imagine what came next, she only felt a chill run down her spine.

The death count kept rising. It was only now that Yu Miaomiao gradually began to realize the cruelty of this so-called survival world—and behind the decreasing numbers, there might even be cases of humans killing one another.

So adding someone as a friend would reveal your coordinates. That made Yu Miaomiao instantly more cautious. As long as she was safe, it was best not to provoke anyone lightly.

She glanced at the time—about ten minutes had passed before the world chat started up again. It was someone who had just arrived in this post-apocalyptic world and still had no idea what was going on.

Afterward, it seemed like everyone was trying to forget what had happened. They all started greeting and chatting with the newcomer. The message from “BackhandSix” was pushed out of view—but his warning had already been branded into the minds of everyone who saw it.

Yu Miaomiao deliberately checked the nickname of the Newbie—Yang Haotian. She didn’t know whether it was a real name.

The total number of people in the world had also changed from the 10,000+ she initially saw to 49,827, with the number of deaths at 173.

That meant around 50,000 people had arrived in this world today.

No one knew how big this world actually was, or how far apart the people were. In such harsh survival conditions, the darker sides of human nature might emerge. Anyone could become a threat.

Yu Miaomiao decided she needed to build a house before nightfall.

She tapped the “wrench” icon, and in addition to the existing crafting recipes, three new ones had appeared:

【Wood ×3 + Cotton ×1 = Basic Campfire】

【Scrap Metal ×2 + Wood ×8 + Screws ×4 = Basic Workbench】

【Scrap Metal ×4 + Wood ×4 + Screws ×4 = Basic Repair Bench】

She didn’t expect even a campfire to require that much wood. Without hesitation, she clicked the “Craft” button beside the small wooden house recipe.

In an instant, a small house began to rise from the ground at a speed visible to the naked eye under the power of the construction hammer. In about a minute, the little wooden house was complete.

It really was convenient.

The placement of the house was right in front of her. Through the holographic interface, when Yu Miaomiao moved her finger over the house area, she could even see its attributes.

【Name: Small Wooden House (Yu Miaomiao) (100/100)

Level: 1

Description: A house that can withstand normal wind and cold

Attribute: 100 Defense Points】

Her Swiss army knife had 50 attack points. It looked like it wouldn’t be able to break this house. But if someone had a weapon with more than 100 attack power, wouldn’t her little wooden house be in danger?

In her backpack, Yu Miaomiao checked the attributes of the construction hammer.

【Name: Basic Construction Hammer (97/100)

Level: 1

Description: Aside from building structures, it’s only good for breaking wooden crates.

Attribute: 80 Attack Points】

Seeing this, Yu Miaomiao finally felt relieved. On the first day, surely no one would have a weapon stronger than this construction hammer, right?

But her two beds were still outside. If she wanted to sleep at night, she’d have to move them in.

Yu Miaomiao looked at the beds and focused her thoughts on storing them—and sure enough, her system backpack now showed Bed ×2.

The sun was already sinking in the west, and the air wasn’t as hot anymore. She quickly set down the umbrella and walked into the house.

It really was a very small wooden cabin. The walls were thin planks on all four sides. There was nothing inside, and it looked like it could only fit one bed. Still, the presence of a latch on the door gave her a little sense of security.

At least she now had a place where she could sleep with some peace of mind. Yu Miaomiao dragged the bed icon from the system backpack with her finger, and as she placed it inside the house, the bed immediately appeared in the designated spot.

Through the holographic interface, when she clicked on the bed, she saw the options 【Dismantle / Sell】 marked on it.

She didn’t expect that even crafted beds could be dismantled. Since she was alone, one bed was enough. She immediately tapped “Dismantle.”

【Lucky trait activated. Dismantling successful. Received 3 pieces of wood and 6 screws. Items have been stored in the system warehouse.】

When the lucky trait was triggered, dismantling gave her the same materials as the original crafting recipe. That meant without the lucky effect, dismantling a crafted item would return fewer materials.

She had been thinking—if she could just keep dismantling and re-crafting, it would be easy to complete item synthesis and tasks. But clearly, the system wasn’t about to let her exploit such a loophole.

She took a hamburger out of her backpack—and to her surprise, it was still warm. Then she pulled out a bottle of water, which turned out to be chilled. It seemed the backpack had some kind of freshness-preserving, time-locking feature.

As she chewed on the burger, Yu Miaomiao even felt a strange illusion—as if she wasn’t in some post-apocalyptic survival world at all.

Browsing through the world chat snapped her back to the reality of the desolate ^[1]“Gobi” (as in Gobi Desert) is often used in English to refer to that specific large desert region in northern China and southern Mongolia. However, in the context of your text, the … Continue readingGobi. By now, people had started trading items.

Most of the chatter was still about water. After all, in this kind of barren desert, water was extremely scarce. Judging by what they were offering in exchange, no one had anything special—mostly basic materials like wood or screws.

Some bold individuals had explored a kilometer or two in the surrounding area but found no water sources or edible plants. Currently, all survival resources came from what the system provided.

Yu Miaomiao still had nine bottles of water, but she didn’t plan to trade anything today. She wanted to wait and see what tomorrow’s daily item pack would give her before making any decisions.

The world chat was becoming livelier, and people were even starting to chat idly about real-world topics. But everyone was careful to keep a certain distance—only chatting publicly, and no one added each other as friends.

As the chat continued flooding the screen, Yu Miaomiao was starting to lose interest. Suddenly, she saw the “question mark” icon flashing—and at the same time, a string of system notification sounds echoed in her mind.